Elma Turner book chat April
The Durrells of Corfu Michael Haag
This expands the life stories of the Durrell family in India then fills out the Greek characters lives when they move to Corfu. Many comments on things Gerry left out of his ‘My family and other animals’. Mother especially who was portrayed by Gerry as kindly and focused on cooking. Here she is a more rounded character and we learn that Larry and his wife Nancy were planning to go to Corfu by themselves when they heard that Mother had booked tickets back to India with Gerry ( from the UK after the father died) . Entertaining
Goes through ‘mother’s recipe books relying on hearsay. Tested some and not very appetising eg the fish dish required 1 ½ hrs of cooking
This is happiness Niall Williams
Noel Crowe leaves the seminary and moves to Faha a small Irish village to live with his grandparents. It never seems to stop raining and there is no electricity. Christy McMahon arrives offering power for the village and has really returned to apologise to a woman he left at the altar 60 years ago. Noel falls in and out of love. A gentle read.
Based on a true story. A discarded painting turns up in a cleanup and it’s of Lexington a famous horse and stud sire. A multi-layered reckoning with enslavement and racism in America
27 Stories mostly with older men as protagonists in Wellington, Middlemarch, Oamaru. Very appealing
The night of the scourge Lars Mytting
Third in the Sister Bells Trilogy and best read in order. Set in a remote Norwegian village before WWII the story spans three generations. The priest we met in book one is now in his eighties, thinking about his death . The Nazis invade Norway.
The place of tides James Rebanks
The author met a Norwegian woman years before who collected eider down from the ducks’ nests on a remote wind swept island - he decides to return and help her with the task. This will be the now elderly woman’s last season there. This book is about the ancient craft and his transformation from the experience
Better the blood Michael Bennett
NZ thriller set in Auckland. Hanna Westerman is the detective trying to solve a serial killer case. Turns out there’s a disaffected lawyer who has been arguing re. land rights and seeks utu. Characters a bit stock and story a bit didactic as the author assumes the reader doesn’t know NZ history.
Dictionary of lost words Pip Williams
Based on a true story but a fictionalised account of the making of the Oxford English dictionary to replace Samuel Jonson’s dictionary. It looks at why some words didn’t make it in. Volunteers would send in suggestions used in a quote. Only the educated had the opportunity and words in the street ignored. We follow fictional character Esme who sits under the table where the lexicographers decide on inclusions and she collects discard words, puts them into a box. Later when she is married, her husband has the lost words made up into a word dictionary as a gift.
Bitterthorn Kat Dunn(available as e-book on Borrowbox)
Fantasy gothic fairytale set in Germany. Mina is the daughter of a Duke. A witch visits every generation and Mina volunteers to go with her to her castle. Deals with loneliness, betrayal, romance and LGBTQ\+ themes
Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder
Grim. Looks at the land between the Baltic and Black seas from the end of Tsarist Russia to the fall of the Nazi regime. Examines the motives and methods behind the mass murders at that time
Set in the French revolution. This is a romance between the gardener/ landscape designer at Versailles and the maid-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette which is stymied as she is promised elsewhere. A lot about oppression of women and a bit bogged down in history
Enjoyed this one more. Based in the pre-Raphaelite period of painters and poets, it focuses on , Burne-Jones, William Morris and Rossetti. Much about mistresses, wives, and art works. Romantic
This took a long time to read. It’s spring and Lana the mother welcomes her 3 adult daughters home to the cherry orchard. They beg their mother to tell the story of how she met Peter Duke the film star with whom she’s shared a stage and a romance before she married their father. Enjoyed it.
An account of the murder. Author traces the life of the four criminals and the influences that shaped their lives
Blood and circuses Kerry Greenwood
Reading the Phryne Fisher series is a bit like eating chocolates. Very addictive! Set in 1920s Melbourne. Phryne is an heiress who solves murder mysteries. In this one she joins a circus to find a murderer
Adventures of a young naturalist: the zoo quest expeditions David Attenborough
Written when David was a BBC producer, director, and quiz master, he was encouraged after seeing Michaela and Armand Denis’s documentary ‘Filming in Africa’ ( 1955) and other documentaries the couple made. Attenborough got into a partnership with London Zoo at a time they were collecting animals, and he accompanied the zoo team to various countries. Written very well and an interesting book.
The warm hands of ghosts Katherine Arden
Having read Arden’s previously engaging Winter witch trilogy set in medieval Russia, I looked forward to this stand-alone novel which the author says she spent some years writing, with once again, excellent historical background. The novel is set in Flanders, Belguim and Halifax, Nova Scotia mostly in April 1918 in the trenches, the town of Halifax, hospitals and at times, places imagined in the minds of the main characters, Canadian nurse Laura and her brother Freddie. A beautiful and eerie at times depiction of the horrors of war. There is trauma, paranormal themes, and pain but the beauty of the writing makes for a satisfying read. I listened as an audiobook via Borrowbox. Highly recommended.
The safekeep Yael van der Wouden
This debut novel was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2024 and many other awards.. Set in the countryside in 1961 it tells the story of Isabel living alone and manages what was her family’s home somewhat obsessively. Her brother Louis asks whether his girlfriend can move in over Summer as he must work away from the town. Initially Isabel is not happy with this intrusion especially as Eva is a very different character with a relaxed manner, sleeps in and touches the objects in the house which Isabel feels proprietorial towards. Items start disappearing which stresses Isabel plus she becomes obsessed with Eva and a relationship develops between them The novel explores the dark past & lies Dutch families told themselves during WW2. Sensual and provocative.
The other Alexander Margarita Liberaki (not found in the library collection )
A cautionary tale about power
Science and power in the nineteenth century Tasman world Alexandra Roginski [library doesn’t have]
About phrenology using Sullivan of Maungatapu murders fame as one example of an evil skull.
